Although I’m very upset with the outcome of yesterday’s episode, I full heartedly understand why the writers headed in this direction. However, I won’t lie, tears have been shed. “Invincible” is directed by Jesse Warn.
The episode opens with Barry taking out an army of Zoom’s metahumans singlehandedly, while the CCPD attempts to help him out. Being trapped in the speedforce gave Barry a huge boost in confidence, and now the speedster thinks he’s invincible. Team Flash are understandably concerned about this new attitude and Henry takes it upon himself to give his son a pep talk. Barry doesn’t consider Henry’s plea to be careful and goes straight into battle with Zoom.
Teddy Sears is frighteningly good at being the villain. I genuinely get chills everytime Zoom utters one of his quips and taunts Barry. In the middle of their rather civil conversation, Barry notices a second building about to crash down (the first being Mercury Labs) and rushes off to try and stop the metahuman responsible for the recent attacks. Barry arrives to find Laurel Lance’s Earth-2 doppelganger, only she goes by the name Black Siren. Black Siren takes Barry down easily and just when you think Barry’s done for, Siren gets run over by a speeding Wally who has been trying to be a hero in his own ways. Although Wally wasn’t affected by the second particle accelerator explosion, he could still be the Kid Flash in more human ways. We’ve seen his love for drag-racing and that he’s actually good at it, so maybe he uses that to his advantage in the next season.
Joe is upset that Wally continuously puts himself in danger and asks Barry to talk to him. Barry does try, but Wally is a West. Helping people is in his blood and he wants to prove to everyone that he is worth saving. I honestly love the father figures on this show. Joe, Henry and Harry are constantly worried about their kids being in danger, but they don’t even realize that their kids get it from them. The three always want to help others (Joe and Henry more than Harry, but people change you know?) so it’s only right that their children follow in their footsteps.
Zoom believes that “The Flash” is just a charade and thinks that he can break Barry into becoming like himself. You’d think after spending all that time with Barry in the earlier episodes, that Hunter would realize how pure Barry actually is. Nonetheless, Zoom sends the Black Siren out to destroy buildings at random, so as to distract Team Flash from his actual plan – a plan that is still unknown to the viewers. It’s clear that all the recent episodes have just been kind of filler episodes for the season finale, which I’m sure has plenty of surprises, and even the reveal of the man in the iron mask. But Zoom wants Barry to break. He wants everyone to see that no one can be that good without being bored, or having a dark side to them.
The team come up with a way to take down all the metahumans from Earth-2 including Zoom and their plan includes Cisco and Caitlin dressing up as Reverb and Killer Frost to distract Black Siren. The two try to convince Siren that they’re all better and stronger than Zoom and could be a better team together. Siren clearly sees past this and calls their bluff. While trying to attack the two impersonators, Cisco ends up bringing his hidden powers to light, catching Siren off guard and taking her down. But because the writers love to mess with us, Cisco isn’t able to replicate the attack. I did appreciate the effort from the two and though it was fun, especially since Caitlin has been feeling so low. Let’s just hope the feeling of being a cold, vicious villain doesn’t stick to Snow for too long.
Just as Siren is about to attack, the team back at STAR Labs power their “sonic amplifier” and the metahumans collectively fall. Zoom, who is clearly the most powerful, manages to get away by creating another breach and going through it. The remaining metas are taken back to STAR Labs and keep them prisoner. Predictably, the team believe they’ve won and being to celebrate. They congregate at Joe’s house for a celebratory dinner, but of course, all good things come to an end. Zoom interrupts the celebrations and kidnaps Henry, forcing Barry to follow and consequently reveal himself to a shocked Wally.
So I predicted this. I think a lot of people did. But I genuinely thought this would happen in the season finale, so now I have a whole week to think about what happened and feel terrible about it. Zoom tells Barry that he’s going to break and watch his own parent die in front of him just like Zoom did. Henry tries to tell Barry that he’s proud of him and that he loves him while Barry pleads to Zoom. Mid-sentence of Henry’s heartbreaking goodbye, Zoom shoves his hand into his back, killing him right in front of Barry.
If anyone had to see their own parent die right in front of them, it would obviously take a toll on them. And we’ve seen what it’s done to Zoom. I loved Henry Allen being a part of the show, guiding Barry in more ways that one. Barry has continuously showed us how much he values family and would go to the ends of the Earth to protect them. But would Barry do whatever it takes to avenge them? Harry has shown to do whatever it takes to protect Jesse, and I do have a feeling that Barry would resort to his ways. My heart feels for Barry. He almost witnessed his loving mother’s death and now just saw his own father be murdered so coldly. And you really can’t help but feel for the guy. Will he ever catch a break?!
Next week brings us the season finale – presumably team Flash taking Zoom down once and for all, the reveal of the man in the iron mask, and hopefully even a Vibe/Flash team up? It’s still too early for Cisco to fully master his powers, but one can only hope.
Check out the promo for the season finale below!
